City and Country

Most cities today have sprawled so widely that in many places they are losing their qualities as cities. As a result, the countryside—understood as the world surrounding the city—has also lost much of its original significance.

In 'City and Country', we reconsider the relationship between city and countryside as a crucial distinction that plays an important role in our society. We approach this critically but constructively by proposing better ways of organizing our lives. The programme is a foundational education in architecture with a focus on ecological thinking, place-based development and concepts, and architectural construction at a 1:1 scale (the building of concrete, full-scale models).

In the 'City and Country' programme, we work with local conditions and problems. In the complexity of contemporary life, it is not enough to describe a place through drawings and words—we must experience it firsthand. Therefore, we seek out specific sites and work in direct dialogue with the people who live there and with the relationships they engage in with the place in their everyday lives.